so that on the contrary ye should rather shew grace and encourage, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with excessive grief.
In Paul's first letter the church at Corinth put a sinning man out, and the discipline has broken him down. Now Paul turns them the other way, because the assembly that was slow to judge is now in danger of being slow to restore.
Paul is not softening the earlier sentence; he is saying it has succeeded.
It is clear that they had obeyed Paul's instructions to put away the man. Now it is just as serious that the man be restored. The discipline had done its proper work: it led the man to judge himself and stop his sin... Now they are to forgive him openly, and comfort or encourage him. Otherwise discipline could be pushed so far that it swallows the man up in sorrow.
This forgiveness is not about the man's standing before God. It is the church taking him back to his place among God's people.
The apostle directs the assembly to forgive him. The punishment had been enough, and they were again to show their love to him. This was no question of his being the righteousness of God, or of his part in it. It was a question of the government of the Church, and of keeping it holy here below. While he lived in his wickedness the man could not enjoy the blessed privileges that belonged to the assembly. They had put him out; now, humbled and repentant, he was to be forgiven.
Grief over sin is right, but Paul sets a boundary to it. There is a moment when continued sorrow stops helping and starts destroying.
The danger now was that the Corinthian assembly, in their zeal against his sin, would overlook his sorrow. They would not forgive him as an assembly and give him back his place among them... Sorrow for sin is good; yet there is a point where it becomes too much and does harm — a point where sorrow should stop and the man should know the joy of forgiveness. The joy of the Lord, and not sorrow for sin, is our strength.
Corinth swung from ignoring the sin to refusing to let the man back. One writer names what lies under both.
They needed now to show grace and encourage, in case the one in question should be swallowed up with the excessive grief he seemed to be showing. It is quite possible for us to swing from one extreme to the other — from being too lax to being too hard. Both extremes come from a lack of true love. Real love will neither make light of the evil, nor lose sight of its aim, which is to win the sinner away from his sin.
The ESV says the man may be overwhelmed; older translations say he may be swallowed up. One writer sees a real danger behind those words, and the enemy at work in the man's grief.
Overwhelming sorrow came upon the man, and Satan, ever watchful, tried to turn it to his own purpose. Had the man destroyed himself, it would have been no wonder, Satan being at work. But God's end would not have been gained. Paul writes to the assembly again: "My grief is past; your chastening of the man has broken him down, he is overwhelmed; receive him, and restore him; I beg you, confirm your love to him."
One writer traces the enemy's strategy across both letters:
This is what the devil was doing. The apostle had insisted on putting the man out (1 Cor. 5:3-5), and the church did not like it. He forced them to act; they carried it out as a judgment, and then did not want to restore him (2 Cor. 2:6-7). So he makes them go with him in the act of restoration... Satan's plan was to bring the wickedness in, to make them careless about it, and afterwards to make them act as mere judges.
Paul had real authority from the Lord, and he had used it before. Here he chooses not to command, so that the forgiving would be their own act.
He does not at all speak as a spiritual dictator, however real and great the authority given him of the Lord... It would have brought the assembly no real healing if they had forgiven the offender only because the apostle had forgiven him and told them to. When the open evil went unjudged, he did command that the man be put out. But now that grace had worked all round... he wants them to forgive, and he will go with them in it. It is not, therefore, "whom I forgive, you also," but "to whom you forgive anything, I also."
- Enough. The punishment has done its work. Once the sin is judged and stopped, taking the man back is as serious a duty as putting him out was.
- Forgive. The church takes a repentant man back into its fellowship. This is not about his standing before God.
- Comfort. Sorrow for sin is good, but only up to a point. Past that the man needs the joy of forgiveness, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.
- Confirm. They must prove their love to him. Real love will neither make light of the sin nor give up on the man, so being too lax and being too hard fail alike.
- Outwit. Satan aimed first at careless tolerance, then at hard delay. He loses when the whole assembly forgives together, with Paul joining them instead of commanding them.
Wherefore I exhort you to assure him of [your] love.
The church at Corinth had put a man out for serious sin. He has now repented, and Paul's letter turns from judgment to recovery. This verse carries one request: make your love for him sure again. It raises a harder question — who has to act, and what happens if they hold back?
Paul asks the church to "reaffirm" its love; the commentators quoted here use the older wording, "confirm" it. The sense is ratifying — the church putting its own signature on love. Paul had the authority to order this. He refused to forgive the man over their heads.
He takes great care to insist on their own part in ratifying love, even while he uses his apostolic authority to lay down their duty. He wants to share in the act with them all the way through. When it came to mercy, he would follow their lead. What he had forgiven, if he had forgiven anything, he forgave for their sake, in the person of Christ.
Paul's tone changes here. A welcome the church does not feel would be no welcome at all.
The apostle's counsel called for this work of restoration, but only they themselves could carry it out. If their hearts were not in it, the work would be done in vain. So Paul's words fit the situation exactly. As one who insists on righteousness, he is firm and precise. When he speaks of grace to the offender, he only reasons and persuades. He no longer commands; he pleads.
Love reaffirmed is more than the lifting of a ban.
The work of restoration, like every other work of God, must be complete. It must be as perfect and decisive as the act of judgment. The restored offender is not just to be tolerated; he is to be welcomed back with affection. If their hearts were right, his absence must have been the grief of all, and his return should be their common joy.
Waiting was not harmless, and the cost fell on the man himself.
The danger now was that the Corinthian assembly, in their zeal against his sin, would overlook his sorrow. As an assembly they would not forgive him and restore him to his place among them. So Paul now has to write, urging them to do this and so confirm their love toward him. Otherwise too much sorrow might overwhelm him. Sorrow for sin is good. Yet there is a point where it can become excessive and harmful — a point where sorrow should stop and the man should know the joy of forgiveness. The joy of the Lord, and not sorrow for sin, is our strength.
The Corinthians had swung from one failure to its opposite. First they were slack about the sin. Then they would not let the man back.
Paul had to urge the Corinthian believers to forgive him, to comfort him, to confirm their love to him. The flesh often likes to be hard. Only the Holy Spirit of God can lead us to restore someone who has strayed, who has sinned and repented. He is the spirit of love and grace, and yet of faithfulness to the Lord. It is easier to cut off than to restore, easier to pull down than to build.
Both errors have the same root, and only love can tell where the line falls.
It is quite possible for us to swing from one extreme to the other — from being too lax to being too rigid. Both really spring out of a lack of true love. True love will not make light of the evil on the one hand, nor lose sight of its object on the other, which is to win the sinner from his sin.
A church that will not restore a repentant man harms more than the man.
But there was also a danger of Satan getting an advantage over the saints. At first he threatened the assembly by bringing in moral evil. Here his threat is different: he works to produce in believers a self-righteous attitude that will not forgive, even when repentance is clear. Satan's devices are many and cunning: the apostles were not ignorant of these, and neither should we be.
- Judged. Discipline had done its work. The church faced the sin, and the man broke down and repented.
- Ratified. The assembly itself must put its seal on love. Paul pleads instead of commanding, because forgiveness they do not feel is worthless.
- Welcomed. Restoration must be as complete as the judgment. The man is not tolerated at a distance; he is received back with joy.
- Timely. Sorrow for sin has a stopping point. Held past it, sorrow swallows a person up. The joy of the Lord is meant to take over.
- Guarded. Refusing to forgive hands the enemy a second victory. Self-righteousness in the church is as much his device as the sin was.
For to this end also I have written, that I might know, by putting you to the test, if as to everything ye are obedient.
Paul had told the Corinthians to put a sinning man out. Now he tells them to take him back, and he says why he wrote as he did: he wanted to test them. The test was not whether they could be strict. It was whether they would obey in everything, including the harder work of showing grace.
Paul's letters did more than instruct. One commentator links the proof Paul wanted to whether their claimed submission to Christ was real, and says both letters had the same aim.
He may be speaking here of both his letters, but mainly of the first. They obeyed the call to judge rightly. Now they are invited to the happier task of showing grace. He wrote as he did to prove that their claimed submission to the gospel of Christ was real. If he writes again now, it is still for the same purpose.
Paul wanted more than compliance. Writing on verses 9 and 10, one commentator sees the second letter as Paul's appeal to their love, with obedience as the proof of it.
Paul wrote this second letter to assure them of his love and to awaken their love. The first letter had indeed put them to the test, to prove their love by their obedience to the apostle's directions. As they proved their love by obeying, his confidence in them would be restored, so that he could say, "Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive."
Obedience that stops at discipline is only half of obedience. The same apostle who told them to put the man out now tells them to receive him. One writer shows how easily a group swings from one extreme into the opposite one.
We can easily swing from being far too lax to being far too harsh. Both extremes really come from a lack of true love. True love will not make light of the evil, and it will not lose sight of its aim, which is to win the sinner away from his sin. So he could now urge them to assure this man of their love. He wanted them to obey this word from him just as they had obeyed before in carrying out the discipline itself.
Another commentator applies this to the Corinthians, who had only just woken up and acted.
Harshness is no more like Christ than looseness or indifference. These people had needed a strong appeal to stir them up to defend the Lord's injured name. Now they were leaning to the opposite extreme of hard judgment. That was as far from the apostle's grace as they had earlier been from his care for holiness.
Some readers have argued that the Corinthians never put the man out, and only rebuked him. One commentator answers that from this verse.
He adds that the rebuke or punishment the majority had already inflicted was enough. It would not have been enough if they had never carried out the sentence of removal. Nothing here hints that a mere rebuke, short of that, had stopped the evil and brought the wrongdoer to repentance… Verse 9 in particular does not fit with anything less.
Having tested them, Paul does not overrule them. He puts their act of forgiveness first and follows it with his own.
The assembly would not have been truly healed if they had forgiven the Corinthian offender only because the apostle had forgiven him and told them to. While the open evil went unjudged, he did command them to put the man out. But once grace had done its work in them all, both in how they weighed this humbling matter and in how they dealt with it, he wants them to forgive, and he joins them in it. So he does not say, "whom I forgive, you forgive too," but "Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive."
God allowed the trouble at Corinth, and something lasting came out of it.
Let us note here, with worship, the merciful wisdom of our God. He made one particular evil the occasion of a lasting good to those who love Him and seek Him in His ways. Because the Corinthian assembly was still in a faulty state, we have this second letter added to the first. So we might have, for our sakes even more than for theirs, a complete example of both the manner and the purpose of godly discipline, to guide the church for all time.
- Tested — Paul wrote to prove them; his letter would show whether their claimed submission to Christ was real.
- Loved — obedience was the test, and their obedience proved their love; Paul wrote to awaken it.
- Everything — judging the evil was only half; the same obedience had to carry them on to forgiving the man.
- Balanced — harshness is as far from Christ as looseness; both come from a lack of true love, and true love aims to win the sinner back.
- Shared — Paul will not forgive over their heads; he waits for them to act and then joins them, so the healing is truly theirs.
But to whom ye forgive anything, *I* also; for I also, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, [it is] for your sakes in [the] person of Christ;
The apostle has just urged Corinth to restore a man they had put out, and now he ties his own hand to theirs: what they forgive, he forgives. Two questions sit behind it. Who holds the right to forgive an offender? And how far does that forgiveness reach?
In his first letter Paul had ordered the man to be put out. Now, in restoring him, Paul reverses the order. His wording is exact.
The assembly would not have been truly healed if they had forgiven the Corinthian offender simply because the apostle had forgiven him and told them to. While the open evil went unjudged, he did command them to put the man out. But grace had now worked in them all, both in how they weighed this humbling matter and in how they dealt with it. So now he wants them to forgive, and he goes with them in it. It is not, therefore, "whom I forgive, you also," but "to whom you forgive anything, I also." He takes great care to urge their own part in confirming this love, even while he lays down their duty as an apostle, so that he might share with them all the way through. In showing mercy he would follow their lead, and what he had forgiven, if he had forgiven anything, he did for their sake, in Christ's person.
This is not a private feeling. It is an official act, and the Lord had spoken of this authority before.
Verse 10 shows that if the assembly at Corinth forgave the man, their forgiveness carried with it Paul's. And again, if Paul forgave anyone by his apostolic authority, he did so for their sakes, and as acting on behalf of Christ. We may call the forgiveness spoken of in this verse administrative forgiveness. The Lord spoke of it in passages like Matthew 16:19, where it is apostolic, and Matthew 18:18, where it belongs to the assembly. In John 20:23 the risen Lord confirms it to the apostles. In 1 Corinthians 5 we have a case where the power of "binding" or "retaining" was used. In our chapter we have an example of "loosing" or "remitting."
Is a church here deciding someone's eternal standing? No. And the word used shows how warm the act is meant to be.
This clearly has nothing to do with the eternal forgiveness of Hebrews 10, which no sin in the saints can, thank God, disturb. Nor does it have anything to do with the restoration of the soul to communion with the Father (1 John 1). But it has to do with bringing back the erring one into the communion of the saints on earth. He had been put out for sexual sin, and now he was forgiven. He was no longer seen as a wicked person, but as a saint — one of "ours." His sin was gone from the mind of the assembly by the act of the assembly. It is interesting to notice that the word used here is "freely" or "heartily forgiven," the same as in Ephesians.
Paul forgave "in the presence of Christ." An older translation reads "in the person of Christ." That means more than Christ standing by and watching.
"In the person of Christ" means as if He were there to do it with authority. It is not limited merely to "in the sight of Christ."
The words sound large, so the limit needs saying. This forgiveness is a matter of discipline on earth. It does not settle a soul's account with God.
The assembly in any one place, or those who act as the assembly should (even if only two or three, Matthew 18:19-20), can forgive the sin that called for discipline. They can receive the sinner back to the table (2 Cor. 2:10). But the question between the soul and God He keeps to Himself — "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" stands good still.
What the apostle did in Christ's name is also the model for anyone wronged by a fellow believer.
As they proved their love by obedience, his confidence in them would return. Then he could say "to whom you forgive anything I also." In this way they would be acting on behalf of the apostle. And he, in forgiving any wrong done to him, represented Christ. So they were carrying out what he urged in another letter: "forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive" (Col. 3:13).
- Their act first. Paul does not say "whom I forgive, you also." He says the reverse. He joins their forgiveness instead of dictating it.
- Their act official. This is administrative forgiveness — the "loosing" of Matthew 18:18 and John 20:23. It is the opposite of the "binding" in 1 Corinthians 5.
- Their act warm. The word used means freely, heartily forgiven. The man stops being "a wicked person" in the mind of the assembly and becomes one of "ours" again.
- Their act limited. It restores a person to fellowship on earth. The question between a soul and God stays with God, who alone can forgive sins.
- Their act in Christ's name. Paul forgave as though Christ were there to do it Himself, with authority. That same grace should shape how you forgive anyone who wrongs you.